Exercise improves social skills in schoolchildren

Exercising alone promotes emotion recognition in the short term

The researchers investigated how sport influenced social cognition in 100 children between the ages of 9 and 13 in the short term. To this end, they formed three groups. The first group of schoolchildren carried out 20 minutes of playful sports activities involving cooperation. This means that the task could only be accomplished with the help of others. The second group also exercised for 20 minutes. The activity was again playful, but without any cooperation, i.e. it could be completed alone. A third control group watched a sports documentary during the set time window and was thus not exposed to any physical exertion.

The researchers conducted a series of tests both before and immediately after the exercise. First, they tested the children’s ability to recognize emotions in a computer test. The children were asked to match pictures of adults to the appropriate emotion. The choices were anger, fear and joy. Their reaction speed and accuracy were recorded.

The children who completed the exercise activity on their own subsequently showed improved emotion recognition. In the group that performed the exercise activity involving cooperation, however, there was no improvement in social cognition compared to the control group that had watched the sports documentary.

No short-term effect of exercising together could be proven

Berger was surprised by these results, as the researchers had also expected positive effects from the cooperative exercise activities. She believes that the main reason for the result lies in the way the study was conducted. The intervention was limited to a single exercise session and therefore only allows conclusions to be drawn about the short-term effects of exercise.

It is likely that social cognition in cooperative sports activities would only improve if the exercise were practiced regularly over a longer period of time. The research group assumes that the unusual situation of cooperation may have already exhausted cognitive resources.

Next, the researchers want to focus on how social-cognitive skills can be strengthened through exercise in long-term training. They plan to carry out regular short exercise sessions with the schoolchildren over the course of 12 weeks. Berger explains: “We want to find out whether we can achieve better results if the children participate in cooperative sports three times a week over an extended period of time.”

Potential for positive effects is greatest in pre-puberty

The research group focuses on children between the ages of 9 and 13. “If you study the effect of exercise, the greatest potential emerges when the brain is changing: during development in childhood or during decline in older people,” explains Berger.

There is another interesting aspect in the age group studied: “At this age, there is a major social shift when, in addition to family, groups of friends become increasingly important. Children with better prosocial behavior find it easier to make connections and integrate into new groups,” says Berger.

Social exclusion, on the other hand, can foster mental illness, especially if it persists for a long time. “So if it can be scientifically proven that sport promotes social-cognitive skills, exercise programs could help children to make friends, behave prosocially and perform better academically.”

Practical application in everyday school life

However, it remains to be seen how the results could be applied in practice. The researchers are now planning to compile a collection of games that is freely accessible to teachers. Melanie Berger says: “These 20-minute exercise sessions can be easily integrated into everyday school life as an active break.”